The present invention relates to local hard drive partition in general and specifically to assignment of a personalized local data partition during the boot of the workstation where the personalized local data partition can only be accessed by the user who placed the data in that partition.
Computers utilize a wide variety of memory devices to store data. One generic type of memory device is typically referred to as a disk. Disks are classified according to the storage 10 medium employed, such as an xe2x80x9copticalxe2x80x9d disk or a xe2x80x9cmagneticxe2x80x9d disk. Disks are also generally classified as either xe2x80x9cfloppyxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9chard.xe2x80x9d Disks are physically divided up into heads (a.k.a. tracks), cylinders, and sectors. Although a sector may be identified by specifying a head, a cylinder, and a sector within the cylinder, a sector may also be identified by a xe2x80x9clogical sector address.xe2x80x9d Each logical sector address is a single number rather than a triplet of numbers. The logical address of a sector corresponds to the number of sectors between the addressed sector and the xe2x80x9cfirstxe2x80x9d sector on the disk along some specified path which traverses all available sectors in order. The first sector is usually known as xe2x80x9csector zero.xe2x80x9d
Disks are also classified by rules governing the physical organization of data on the disk. Many disks mold the available space into one or more xe2x80x9cpartitionsxe2x80x9d by a xe2x80x9cpartition tablexe2x80x9d located on the disk. The partition table includes partition identifiers. Each partition identifier includes a starting address, which is the physical sector address of the first sector address of the first sector in the partition in question, and an ending address, which is the physical sector address of the last sector in the partition. These partitions may be linked together to provide a unified storage mechanism for the host computer or network.
When a computer is booted, it processes a series of self tests and then reads the Master Boot Record, or MBR into memory. The MBR contains instructions to locate the disk""s system (startup) partition, read the contents of the first sector of the system partition into memory, and then carry out the instructions in that sector.
The hard drive is divided into four primary partitions. The first three are primary and the fourth is extended. The Logical Boot Records are in the extended partitions. For example, A: drive would be the first, designated by 0. B: drive would be the second, designated by 1. C: drive would be the third, designated by 2. The extended drive, D: would be designated by 3 or it could be designated by any number of partitions such as 3,4,5 and so on.
Traditionally, local hard drive partitions are fixed entities, persistent across boots. Personal user data that is destined for the local hard drive is accessible by anyone who shares the same machine. Many corporations have multiple end users using the same machine because of shift work and their local data will remain accessible to all who share the machine.
A need exists for personal local data partitions that are assigned during the boot of the work station. A further need exists for a personal local data partition that allows administrators to configure workstations so they can maintain private local data depending on the user/personality chosen at boot time and continues to keep the non-essential data separate (inaccessible) between boots.
While some operating systems offer persistent assignment of partitions whereby a partition will always be matched to the same physical partition, there are no operating systems that offer multiple user/personality selectability. Therefore, a need exists for a personal partition system that is not dependent on an operating system. A further need exists for a personal partition system that does not require any specific operating system to be running and can provide the same view to any operating system. This is important especially if a workstation has multiple operating systems because no matter which operating system is booted the same partition view will be provided outside and separate from each of the operating systems.
The invention solving the problem identified above is a computer program which, once installed on a computer, will allow a user to be assigned personal local data partition, and at the boot of the workstation that personalized partition will be assigned a drive letter. When the user logs off his personal data will be retained in the partition. When the second user logs on, that user will be assigned a different personal data partition. When the computer boots after logon by the second user, the operating system will not see the first users partition and will assign the same drive letter to the second user""s partition. The process will repeat for any number of users. Therefore, at each boot of the system, the operating system will not see the personal data partitions for any other user than the user who just logged on with his or her individual identification.
Thus, once the program is installed, each user of a particular workstation is assigned a local data partition that is available only for his or her booted session. The next user, after a reboot, gains access to their own personal local data partition. The partition of other users is protected at a machine level and could not even be overridden by the operating system. The resulting configuration allows one or more persistent partitions (including one or more boot partitions) and several user specific partitions. For example, during each boot, the machine would have a C: drive where the operating system is loaded, a D: drive for shared data and an E: drive for personal data. This E drive would be replaced for each user accessing the machine but physically pointing to their own personal partition. All applications would be configured to store personal information on the E: drive which would ensure that each users personal data was stored on their own personal local partition. Also, user logon could be replaced with personality logon whereby each personal local partition becomes a personality partition. In other words, one partition could be an accounting partition with accounting software and data and another partition could be a financial partition with financial software and data. An administrator could have access to all of the partitions for maintenance or other requirements by having an identifier that would be assigned to all of the partitions.